The present invention relates to a novel adjustment structure of an oscillating lawn sprinkler, which is easily adjustable into different water-outgoing angles so as to achieve a variety of sprinkling patterns.
Many kinds of oscillating sprinklers are currently on the market. Such sprinklers generally comprise a base frame, oscillator, and a tubular element containing a plurality of holes through which water is discharged. The oscillator drives the tubular element to oscillate back and forth, thereby watering a desired area of lawn. Furthermore, the oscillatory angle of such sprinklers is often adjustable, providing a way for varying the sprinkling area in the vertical direction. Thus the area of lawn to be watered can be tailored to some extent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,356 (the '356 patent) describes a conventional oscillating sprinkler, wherein nozzles may be adjusted through two independent levers in order to achieve a desired coverage pattern, so that when each lever is individually adjusted, the angle of some nozzles, with respect to other nozzles, changes.
Conventional sprinkler designs such as the '356 patent, include a slotted shiftable guide body with a plurality of slots to adjust flexible nozzles, where the slots remain parallel with each other and each slot faces in the same direction. The slotted guide body is shiftable transversely relative to an associated nozzle row and adjusted by multiple levers.
One problem with the conventional design described above is that adjusting the two levers to obtain the desired spray coverage can be cumbersome and tedious. Also, the conventional design utilizes multiple adjusting mechanisms, which lead to more parts, thereby increasing both the complexity of the design, and the manufacturing and assembling costs associated with the design.
Thus a need was felt for an oscillating sprinkler which can easily and quickly be adjusted using just a single adjusting means, along with lower manufacturing and assembly costs.